Musée des Beaux-Arts et d'Archéologie, Besançon, Gift of George and Adèle Besson 1963. Deposited by the Musée national d'art moderne

In 1912 Bonnard's friends George and Adèle Besson commissioned this painting for their apartment. Place Clichy, on the western slope of Montmartre, is the centre of a number of radiating avenues, a busy place full of people shopping, talking and drinking coffee. The automobile and commercial businesses visible in the background demonstrate the prosperity of the times.

The view is from the terrace of the Brasserie Wepler. Its awning is visible along the top of the picture, with the words soupers (suppers) and brasseri[e] facing out to the street — and therefore seen by us in reverse. The horizontality of the awning is echoed in the frieze-like array of people across the bottom half of the canvas. A waiter stands at the extreme left, another at the right. Two women on the left walk by, while the two to the right, accompanied by a small child, appear to be about to seat themselves at a table. A man walks with a dog, and two girls cross the street arm in arm, one of them carrying a basket of laundry. Passengers look out of the passing car. Figures on the far right with a parasol shield themselves from the bright sunlight bathing the scene.

A sense of depth is conveyed by the diminishing size of the people from foreground into middle distance; by the nearer buildings overlapping more distant ones as in a stage set; and by the softening and blurring of the most distant details.

The Brasserie Wepler is still there today — look up www.wepler.com on the internet.